March 06, 2013

Molokai, Part 4 (of 11); More hiking in the hills

As I said before, I absolutely love windswept openness. And the west end of Molokai has LOTS of it.

The short, scrubby trees you see in the above two photos are kiawe. More about them later.

The dirt on most Hawaiian islands is red, presumably from the iron in the magma and lava (though I'm not sure). We all remember the red mud we encountered many years ago when our family climbed Olomana on Oahu, and it is abundant here, too. The dust is red, too, and it gets on everything, including inside the condo and on the roadside guardrails.

There were a number of imports to the islands that didn't work out very well. The Japanese emperor donated some small deer. These have thrived on Molokai, but during dry periods they go down into the condo complex, looking for edible vegetation.

Another import was the mongoose. Reportedly Mongeese (?) were brought to the islands to hunt the rats, but that didn't work out very well because they are active at different times of the night and day. But the mongoose holes can be serious and dangerous.

A third import, and one that is really horrid now, was the kiawe tree. I'm told it was originally imported to be raised as a source of firewood. And that might have been successful in the days when wood was the only source of carbon fuel. But the trees have spread and have nasty thorns. Several times I had thorns from downed twigs or branches stick into my shoes or sandals (fortunately, they didn't go through, but they certainly do go through flip-flops). Nevertheless, kiawe are beautiful, gnarly trees.

Comments

As I said before, I absolutely love windswept openness. And the west end of Molokai has LOTS of it.

The short, scrubby trees you see in the above two photos are kiawe. More about them later.

The dirt on most Hawaiian islands is red, presumably from the iron in the magma and lava (though I'm not sure). We all remember the red mud we encountered many years ago when our family climbed Olomana on Oahu, and it is abundant here, too. The dust is red, too, and it gets on everything, including inside the condo and on the roadside guardrails.

There were a number of imports to the islands that didn't work out very well. The Japanese emperor donated some small deer. These have thrived on Molokai, but during dry periods they go down into the condo complex, looking for edible vegetation.

Another import was the mongoose. Reportedly Mongeese (?) were brought to the islands to hunt the rats, but that didn't work out very well because they are active at different times of the night and day. But the mongoose holes can be serious and dangerous.

A third import, and one that is really horrid now, was the kiawe tree. I'm told it was originally imported to be raised as a source of firewood. And that might have been successful in the days when wood was the only source of carbon fuel. But the trees have spread and have nasty thorns. Several times I had thorns from downed twigs or branches stick into my shoes or sandals (fortunately, they didn't go through, but they certainly do go through flip-flops). Nevertheless, kiawe are beautiful, gnarly trees.